Disclaimer
This report was compiled by an ADRC visiting researcher (VR) from ADRC
member countries.
The views expressed in the report do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe ADRC. The boundaries and names shown and the designations usedon the maps in the report also do not imply official endorsement or
acceptance by the ADRC.

Visiting Researcher Program 2014A,2014A
Asian Disaster Reduction Center

Research Topic: Community based to Flood Management
Mitigation in Japan”:
Japan : A Comparative study of Myanmar andJapan'ResearchRh Topic:
T i : Community
Cit bbasedd tot FlFlooddManagement & Mitigation in Japan”: A
Comparative study of Myanmar and Japan
Japan'X

Chapter 1 Research Background

X

Chapter 2 Disaster and Community Participation in Myanmar

X

Chapter 3 Disaster and Community Participation in Japan

X

Chapter. 4 Finding and Conclusion

2Specific Aims in the Research
XTo study
Td bestbpractices
ioff communityi participationi i i iin flflood
dpreparedness planning and mitigation process in JapanX

Look at the roles of g
government organizations
gand NGOs
involvement in flood preparedness planning in Japan

XTo get learned from Japan and make recommendation the bestpractices of flood management into Myanma3

A i ii PActivities
PerformedfdX

Community participation in flood management
planninglandd mitigation process in JapanX

Relations between government organizations andlocal community in flood management in JapanX

Flood Preparedness planning system andinvolvement of the community in JapanX

Field visit and observe community based flood
monitoring and control systems.

X

Field visit and observe the early warning system inJapan4

Major Disasters in Myanmar
Cyclone Nargis on 2/3 MayMay, 2008 with wind speed 120 miles p/h in 7 township inAyeyarwaddy Region and 40 township in Yangon Region leaving 138,373 people
dead

Cyclone Giri on 22 Oct, 2010 in 8 town in in Rakhine State, in 1township in Mandalay Region and 4 townin Mgway Region with57 pepopel died

Tarlay Earthquake on 24 March, 2011 in Tarcheleik
Township and Tarlay sub-townshipsub township with 7 Richter scalewith Death person 76 and Injured person 100

Thabaikkyin Earthquake on 11 Nov, 2012 in Saging andMandalay Regions with 18 people deadMagway Flash Flood on 20 Oct,
Oct
2011 in Pakukkyu, Sate Phyu, Pauk,
Myaing with 161 People Death andlostCommunity-based Disaster Risk Management in Myanmar-A community-Based Disaster risk Management is a process of disaster risk
management in which at risk communities are activity engaged in theidentification analysis,identification,analysis treatment,treatment monitoring and evaluation ofdisaster risk in order to reduce their vulnerabilities and enhance theircapacities.
-This
This means that the people are at the heart of decision making andimplementation of disaster risk management activities. The
involvement is necessary. In CBDRM, local and national governments
are involved and supportive NGOs.

678

After Cyclone Nargis

9Aft Cyclone
AfterC lNargis
N i DiDisastert P
Preparedness
diin M
MyanmarSchool-Cum-Shelters and Cyclone Shelters

10Youthh Participation in Myanmar

1112

Disaster Management Law in Myanmar-The Disaster Management Law was ratified by National government on
13(31,July, 2013)and Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement
isdeveloping regulations for disaster management

International Day for Disaster Reduction inMyanmar 201414

Disasters in Japan
XEvery year there is a great loss of people's lives and property in Japan due

to disasters. Up until the second half of 1950s, numerous large-scale
typhoons and earthquakes caused extensive damage and thousands ofcasualties.
XOne-half of the population of concentrated in possible inundation areas,

which account for about 10% of the national land.

15

Societies' Capabilities in addressing flood in Japan• Japan is prone to a variety of water and wind
wind-related
related disasters
including flooding, landslides, tidal waves and storm hazards,
owing to meteorological conditions such typhoons and active
weather-front systemsyand ggeographicalg pconditions• However, with the progress of society's capabilities to address
disasters and the mitigation of vulnerabilities to disasters bydeveloping disaster management systems, promoting national landconservation, improving weather forecasting technologies, andupgrading disaster information communications systems, disasterdamage has shown a declining tendency.

16

Observation System
XThe Japan Meteorological Agency observes meteorologicalphenomena that cause storm and flood disaster using theA t
Automatedt d MetrologicalM t l i l Data
D t Acquisition
Ai itiS tSystem(AM DAS)
(AMeDAS),which automatically measures rainfall, air temperature andwind direction/speed weather radar, and geostationary
meteorological satellites.
satellites
XThese are use to announce forecasts and warning toprepare against disasters, as the weather warnings andadvisories for individual municipalities began in May 2010.
2010
The rainfall and the water and the water levels in rivers areobserved by the Ministry of land, Infrastructure, Transport
and Tourism and prefectural governments visual observation
methods, mechanical observation equipment, and wirelesstelemeter system that transmits automatically observed datafrom remote locations. Flood forecasts and water level
information are provide utilizing the Internet and mobilephones.

17Risk Assessment
XFlood risk is a product of the probability of occurrence of

a flood hazard; the vulnerability of individuals, society, andth environment
theit despited
it flood
fl d mitigation
iti tiffroma broadb dvariety of measures implemented to dampen flood
consequences through preparation, response, recovery andmitigation;
XThe consequences that result from the mitigated hazard

event. Our understanding of flood risk is affected by ourevent
ability to identify and assess these hazards, vulnerabilities,and consequences; our ability to manage flood risk isenabled
bl d byb our ability
bilit tot coordinate
di t our policies
li i
andd
actions with numerous partners across the risk
management lifecycle to address these hazards,vulnerabilities and consequences.

18

Overview of Disaster Management Planning in Japan19

X Disaster Management System of Japan20

Catchment-Based Regional Flood ManagementPlanning,g, the Case of the Tsurumi River Basin
XThe Act was intended for a new legal system for more viable

implementation of comprehensive measures. It prescribes thedevelopment of catchment flood management plan, theconstruction of rainwater storage and infiltration facilities byriver management authorities,
authorities the enforcement of regulation
to catchment area to control runoff, designation of urban
flood prone areas, etc.
XBasedB d on thisthi Act,A t theth Tsurumi
Ti RiverRi
was designatedd it d as a

specific urban river in 2005. This designation prompted rivermanagement authorities, sewage management authorities,
and local public entities take concerted measures againstflood damage. In 2008, the “Tsurumi River Area Flood ControlPlan” was worked out to promote flood control measures
together by the above competent authorities and also localresidents.

212223

Community Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan
Japan has many experiences about natural disasters mostfrequently in the world. There is gained the knowledge anddeveloped the skills of responding and preparing for disasters
through its past experiences. Also “Community –based disaster
Management” has drawn people’s attention in the field ofdisaster management. It is necessary to engage local
government and community in disaster risk mitigation.

BOKOMI In japan
BOKOMIs are community based - elementary school district based
disaster prevention organizations. Since 1995, based on the lessons
learned from the Great East Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, all of thedistricts of Kobe city – 191 districts have established BOKOMIs. To
establish BOKOMI, firstly, it is discussed and decided on by local
government organizations including the local city office and the local
fire station, together with leader of 33 local residents associations,
women’s’ associations,i tielderly
ld l associations,i ti
voluntaryl tfi corps
fireandd24etc.

X

Awareness building

X

Standardized marks for flooding and examples in Japan

Flooding Flooding Sign

X

Evacuation Sign

Historical Flood (Toyooka, Japan) Projected Flood (Tokyo, Japan)
25

X

ParticipationinCommunity-based
Preparedness Activities

Disaster

It is widelyy recognizedgthat a communityy pplays
y a crucialrole in managing natural disaster risks. Capacity
development is regarded as the ongoing process ofenhancing the problem-solving abilities of developing
countries by taking into account all the factors at theindividual, organizational, and societal levels.
The community is described as the “main actor”, whichplays key roles in disaster management. Otherorganizations around the community, such as
governmental agencies,agencies local governments,governments and nongovernmentalorganizations,aredescribedas“supporting actors” to the communities. JICA supports
p the capacities
pof the communities as well as
to develop
supporting actors.

26

Ashiyay Drill 2014

27

Comprehensive Disaster Drill Kyoto City28

Disaster Drills (BOKOMI) in Kobe City-Kobe
Kobe city calls community-basedcommunity based disaster prevention organization“Disaster-Safe Welfare Communities”- The short name for a Disaster-Safe Welfare Community is (BOKOMI).

29

Disaster Prevention Day Drills for FY2014
Monday, September 1, 201430

Findingg and Conclusion
Both Myanmar and Japan is the most vulnerable to disasters,
including those caused by climate change – from floods to droughts,
earthquakes and tsunamis. In fact, over the last three decades, thisregion accounted for a staggering 85 per cent of deaths due to naturaldisasters. The disaster management has high importance in these twocountry, for this the community participation is inherit part of thismanagement.
The community participation process is very important for the formationand strengthening of Community disaster response organization orcommunity disaster management volunteer's team is the key to mobilizing
communities for sustainable disaster risk reduction. The community
volunteers, disaster management committee, and disaster responseorganization are the necessary interface or the channel for outsiders such as
NGOs or government agencies to assist/support the community at-large.
31

Findingg and Conclusion
There are no specific approach at differentypparticipation
pin disasterlevels of community
management but the approach of bottom-up
have found very impressive.
Community involvement inrisk assessment and risk
reduction planning leads toThegeneralobjectiveofownership, commitment andy pparticipationp
is to save
community
concertedindividualandlives and damage to properties, byactions in disaster mitigation,
helping communities work toincluding
resource
decrease their vulnerability andmobilization. Trustingg andincrease their capacity to reduce thesupporting
thecapacity
impact of floods. Participation ofbuilding process results in acommunity members and related
wide range of appropriate andstakeholders in flood management
do-able mitigation solutions
is essential in sustaining the flood
are important for Community
risk reduction process for theBased Disaster Management
i to meet intendedid d aims
icommunity
process, as it is cost effective,
32and targets.
self-help and sustainable aswell.

Finding
g and Conclusion

Community participation is fundamental
and essential for each stage of the flood
management, that is, preparedness for,response to and recovery from. They canseek to maximize the benefits through therelated development activities within theriver basin as a whole.

Community
participation in floodrisk assessment aswell as in planningand implementationof risk management
measures is a key tosuccess of flood risk
management plans.

C
Community
i activities
i i i can beb successfully
f ll usedd at every step ini flood
fl dmanagement; in preparedness: community activities works for building
consensus and collaborating with other development activities, in
response: theth accumulationl ti off individual
i di id l activities
ti iti expects
t synergy
effects on group advantages and in recovery.

33

Finding and Conclusion
Observing the system of, it has found the effectiveness of involving
communities in disaster preparedness and mitigation. However,
local communities cannot reduce all vulnerabilities on their own.
While communities have built on local coping strategies andcapacities to reduce some vulnerabilities, many necessary structural
mitigation measures involve big capital outlay.

More important, vulnerability is also a complex web of conditions,factors, and processes, which can only be reduced throughcomplementary and concerted action among multiple-stakeholders
from various disciplines and levels of the disaster management anddevelopment planning system.

34

Among Other, the impressive visited Places
Underground Channels and Disaster effected areas inJapan35

36